Juan Jiménez is the younger brother of Antonio “Maloco” Jiménez and currently lives in Barrio San
Salvador of Caguas, Puerto Rico, in the secluded road behind the tienda, or store, of the Trinidads. His
home is newly built and sits on cement blocks...

Juan Jiménez is the younger brother of Antonio “Maloco” Jiménez and currently lives in Barrio San
Salvador of Caguas, Puerto Rico, in the secluded road behind the tienda, or store, of the Trinidads. His
home is newly built and sits on cement blocks...

Marcelo Jiménez, or “Chelo,” is one of the younger sons of Cristina (Tino) and Gregorio Jiménez. Mr.
Jiménez grew up in San Salvador, Caguas, Puerto Rico and did work in that mountain barrio like the
others, laboring on different farms or helping...

Roberto Jiménez is son of “Tio Funfa” Jiménez. Today he lives in the small mountain town of Aguas
Buenas, Puerto Rico, but did live for some years in Detroit, Michigan, traveling back and forth in the
1950s, “when there were not that many Puerto...

Although Estervina Jiménez has never lived in Chicago herself, her life has been deeply connected to the
city. Born and raised in Barrio San Salvador of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Ms. Jiménez’s husband, Cordero,
traveled back and forth to Chicago’s La...

Eldelmira Cruz is from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico. She migrated to the Chicago Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1969 and lived right by the People’s Church. Her memories of her early days in Chicago include the work the Young Lords were doing as they...

Antonio “Maloco” Jiménez Rodríguez has no qualms about admitting that he was the Vice-President of the notorious Hacha Viejas, or Old Hatchets, of the 1950s and 1960s in Chicago. He was a World War II veteran with a lot of heart.

Benedicto Jiménez is the son of Toribia Rodríguez and Miguel Jiménez. For Mr. Benedicto Jiménez, the importance of family and neighborhood ties became especially clear once he was in Chicago. There, Puerto Ricans faced the same hardships and so...

Amparo Jiménez lives in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico where she is very active within the Catholic Church. Ms. Jiménez is daughter of “Tio Funfa Jiménez” whose children and their offspring left Puerto Rico and grew up primarily in Detroit and Pontiac,...

Charlyne Martínez-Villegas came to Grand Rapids, Michigan from New Jersey where she loved it because there were many Puerto Ricans. In Grand Rapids she was only one of a few. Another reason that she loved New Jersey is that that is where her mother...

Gregorio Gómez is known as the “G Man” at one of Chicago’s longest running underground poetry venues, “Weeds,” at 1515 North Dayton Street. Opened in 1964, “Weeds” still serves the Lincoln Park neighborhood; the building has existed there since...

Hy Thurman arrived in Chicago when he was seventeen years old from a small farming town in eastern Tennessee. Mr. Thurman co-founded the Young Patriots. In 1969, the Young Patriots became part of the original Rainbow Coalition, along with the Young...